It's me, Mario

Happy New Year everyone! I've just spent a week in the mountains with my extended family, and we all had a wonderful holiday. I brought a couple quilts that I've had a hard time photographing in the hope that a snow scene would be more flattering. I show them soon, but for now here is a final handmade Christmas gift.

It's the finished Mario pillow I made for my nephew. Mario is much less obvious than he would be had I used solids, but I like the way he disappears when you get too close. I quilted straight lines on both sides of each seam.

I assembled the top by chain-piecing progressively larger patches of the pillow top.

Next time I do a project like this I'll probably be a bit more careful with consistent color value in the various color blocks. Or maybe not!

Porthole pillows

I'm excited about these pillows I made to go with my marquee quilt. I used many of the same fabrics I used in the quilt. The neutral solid is a double layer of the same unbleached kona muslin I used to back the quilt.

I wanted to contrast the square geometry of the marquee quilt with some bold circles. The reverse-applique technique is inspired by Lu Summers's porthole quilt. The finished seam of the foreground fabric against the backing applique creates a striking sense of depth. I obviously took my quilting in a different direction than Lu.

The pillow binding matches the binding on the marquee quilt.

This project started with a doodle on deceptively rare and precious note paper.

I like the way the straight-line quilting meets the echo quilting around the circles. I think it evokes a bit of science fiction, or maybe crop circles.